GMRuslan Ponomariov

Ruslan Ponomariov was born in Horlivka in 1983 and learned chess from his father. His development accelerated after moving to Kramatorsk, where he attended the A. V. Momot chess school. At twelve he won the European under-18 championship, followed by the World under-18 title the next year. He became a grandmaster at fourteen. In 2002 he defeated Vasyl Ivanchuk in the FIDE World Championship final, becoming an eighteen-year-old world champion during the period when the title was divided. Later successes included runner-up finishes in the 2005 and 2009 World Cups and the 2011 Ukrainian Championship. In an interview, Ponomariov recalled the difficulty of combining extensive tournament travel with school. Individual tuition and his father's help with exams allowed him to finish school while pursuing professional chess.